Tournament Losses
by reminiscent-afterthought
Summary: Now he's at the Kalos League, and further than he's ever come before.


**A/N:** Written for

The Mega Prompts Challenge, writing prompts #009 – 1000 word superdrabble.  
The Indigo League Challenge, Route 3 – write a oneshot. Your minimum number of segments is 4, and your segments must be over 75 words. All your segments must be within 500 words of your relevant minimum word count.

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 **Tournament Losses**

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His first major tournament loss was hardly a testament to his battling skills. Rather, it was a testament of his _training_ ability and was it even that? Brock even said it. It was most likely Charmander's past that made his evolutions so disobedient. Testing him. Pushing him. Seeing if he'd be used as the team's powerwhip, as _Ash's_ powerwhip –

And that hurt, when Brock put it like that, because didn't Charmander trust him enough by then? Didn't he know him well enough? To know he wasn't like Damien at all? Though he wasn't passing that test particularly well, recalling Charizard almost as soon as he sent him out because Charizard would just lie there and do nothing, or shoot a flamethrower at him…

But that wasn't the only thing he was being tested for, Brock pointed out. He couldn't prove he was tough enough to handle his Charizard.

And he went and called him out in a League match. Thinking that surely a show of trust like that would get him a pittance reward. It got him nothing but disqualification.

He exited the Indigo Conference in the Top 16.

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He was a better trainer by the Johto League. He'd turned Charizard around, worked through the issue of his pokemon not getting along and now had a few more evolutions on his team.

He was a better trainer and the top eight was as far as his current level took him.

Who knew if it was tactics or raw power or both. He beat Gary, at least, and that was the crowning moment of his Pokemon trainer career to date – but then he tumbled off that high in the next round when he lost. Tumbled because that was as far as he could go.

He'd done his best and Top 8 was the end result. He needed to go on getting stronger.

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Hoenn was supposed to be a breath of fresh air and maybe it wound up being. Pikachu learnt a new move, at least. And he got new Pokemon. A slightly different spread, that forced him to learn slightly different tactics to work with them.

But he was still knocked out of the semi-finals and he couldn't help but wonder if he'd reached his limit already. Because that would completely _suck_. There were far more pokemon out there, and battles, and regions to explore.

He couldn't be at the end of his rope already. There was so much more to go.

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Sinnoh proved he wasn't at the end of his rope. Sinnoh saw him into the top 4 – and, besides that, he made a name for himself in Pokemon League history by knocking out two legendary pokemon.

It was almost unfair that there'd been a Pokemon trainer like Tobias in the Lily of the Valley Conference in the first place. If it hadn't been for that, he might've won the whole thing. After all, the guy who came in second couldn't top him. The guy who came in second might as well have been any one of those other opponents taken down with just one Darkrai.

He'd been the only person in the whole tournament to knock it out.

It kind of sucked – but it felt pretty good as well. He'd climbed so high and he could see it.

And he could almost taste the next Conference. He was on a roll, and he'd roll right onto the finals next time – maybe even win it all.

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He wondered if overconfidence was his downfall in the Vertress Conference. It looked like a close match but the numbers said he'd lost 6-4 and that was pretty bad. Worse, he hadn't made it past the semi-finals. He'd backslid. Not the best marker of progress but he'd been far below the height he'd achieved at the Sinnoh League.

Something had gone wrong. Overconfidence, or he hadn't trained hard enough with his Pokemon, or their journey had been too stilted – There was something. He hadn't gone as far as he could have, as he should have. He knew he could have done better. It wasn't just about his Pokemon after all. It was about him as well.

Or maybe his success in the Sinnoh League had been because he'd been depending on the very best of his Pokemon and that wasn't fair to them, was it? They were all the best, if he could bring out their powers right.

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And now it was the Kalos League. He'd taken the past five and cultivated them into this, or so he hoped. Found a new height of training, a new height of power, a new height of bonds. And for once his rival was following in his shadow instead of the other way around but he didn't let it go to his head, not after he saw how fast the other was catching up.

Still, he hadn't expected to be surpassed out of the blue like that, when he was still trying to understand his new power. Didn't expect to spiral so quickly and so completely. Didn't expect to go on the losing streak he suddenly found himself on, more potent than even the Indigo League where he'd curled up in bed and cried like the child he'd tried so hard not to be.

But he grew. He matured. He overcame. And he overcame Sawyer again as well and he could just imagine what Sawyer felt: the same he'd felt in the Indigo League, or the Johto or the Hoenn or the Sinnoh or the Unova…

But above that was something else as well: fearful pride because, for the first time in six Conferences, he'd made it to the final round and he was still going.

And maybe, _maybe_ , this time he'd win it all.

But even if he didn't, he'd come further than ever before again.

And even though he might backslide at times, he just had to keep on going until he got to the top together with his Pokemon.


End file.
